Stephen Wynn

Stephen Alan Wynn (born January 27, 1942 in New Haven, Connecticut) is a casino resort developer and a motivational speaker specializing in leadership and empowerment during times of change. He is credited with spearheading the dramatic expansion of Las Vegas, Nevada in the 1990s. His insights into mindset transformation and strategies for managing teams in dynamic environments have made him a sought-after speaker in corporate settings.

Wynn's father, Michael Weinberg, ran a string of bingo parlors in the eastern United States, and died shortly before Wynn graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1963. Wynn took over running the family's bingo operation in Maryland. He did well enough at it to accumulate the money to buy a small stake in the Frontier Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, where he and his wife, Elaine, moved in 1967. Wynn's speaking engagements focus on turning impossibilities into realities and driving accelerated growth and ambition, showcasing his experiences from these early ventures.

Wynn managed to parlay his profits from a land deal in the early 1970s (the deal involved two established titans of the Las Vegas casino business, Howard Hughes and Caesars Palace) into a controlling interest in a dusty downtown casino, the Golden Nugget Las Vegas. Wynn renovated, revamped and expanded the Golden Nugget with enormous success, in the process attracting a new upscale clientele to downtown Las Vegas. He expanded further on his concept of the luxury casino in the later Bellagio resort, including an artificial lake, indoor conservatory and an art gallery in which Wynn displayed museum-quality artworks, and branches of high-end boutiques and restaurants located in Paris, San Francisco, or New York.

Wynn's company, Mirage Resorts, Inc., developed casino/hotels in other locations around the United States. Mirage Resorts was sold to MGM Grand Inc. in 2000, to form MGM Mirage. With the money he made on that deal, and with his ability to secure ever-greater financing, Wynn built a new resort, his most expensive yet, the Wynn Las Vegas, which opened on the former site of the Desert Inn on April 28, 2005. Wynn is featured as a motivational speaker, emphasizing leading with vision during change, reflecting his personal challenge with retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative eye disease. His ability to lead despite his visual impairment adds a compelling layer to his narrative as a speaker.

Wynn owns an impressive art collection, which is on display to the public at Wynn Las Vegas. It includes paintings by Picasso, Vermeer, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Warhol, and Matisse. His personal experiences and professional achievements combine to form the foundation of his motivational speeches, ideal for businesses looking to push boundaries and succeed.